If you’ve read even a few of my writings (books, blogs, newsletters) you know I’m really big on storytelling. The truth is, our brains are wired for stories. Science is now proving what life experience has always shown: we feel before we think. It’s stories that attract us, stories that help us learn the most, stories that get us to buy, or click, or act.

Why We Mumble and Slur Words
“How do I stop mumbling and pronounce words more clearly?” is a very common question I’ve heard from clients over the years. But before I directly answer the question about better diction, I think it’s important for you to first think about why you mumble. So here are the primary reasons people mumble.

Project My Voice Step One: Test
“How do I project my voice?” is a very common question I’ve heard from clients over the years. To them, they think they are speaking way too loudly–as if they are screaming, when they really are speaking quite softly. To find out if this is you…ask a trusted friend to stand in the back of a room. You say, “This is test A of my volume.

My birthday is this week and it’s hard for me to believe that I started delivering public speaking program for academics (engineering, biotechnology, and medicine) in 1992 — over 20 years ago! When I first started all of the faculty and even the students were older than me, now, as much as it pains me to admit this, I am older than the postdocs and even sometimes even older than the faculty!

For the average person speaking at a normal pace, what is the typical number of words they can say in one minute?

I am a professional speaker and podcast host and I speak at approximately 145-160 words per minute (wpm), while many sources state that average American English speaker engaged in a friendly conversation speaks at a rate of approximately 110–150 wpm

Oh my gosh, I was stunned. What happened to Michael Bay? A very well respected communication professional, director Michael Bay, was thrown off when the teleprompter failed during a live presentation at CES 2014 in Las Vegas. He was there to promote a new television from Samsung and unbelievably he chose to leave the stage leaving behind the executive from Samsung alone on stage.

I’m thrilled to be referenced by Juventud Kehila in his article about presentations called, “How to make incredible presentations?”. The article was written in Spanish. If you’re non-Spanish speaker, the 5 main points are the following.
1. Identify your anxiety
2. Be brief
3. Listen to critics
4. Prepare for the unknown
5.

Although talking about death is generally considered taboo, this TED talk from Candy Chang, titled, Before I Die, I Want To… was an inspiration. She explained the powerful way that death clarifies life and through her art, she wanted to bring that same clarity to her local community.